Remembering Willie Mays

willly ma one of the greatest players in the history of our game has passed away at the age of 93 fans across the world are remembering Willie Mays today thank you for joining us for local 3 News at 5:30 I'm Latrice Curry and I'm Greg Glover his family and the San Francisco Giants first announced his death here's a look at reaction from Baseball fans he was known as the say Hey kid he was electrifying with a combination of Talent drive and exuberance that made him one of baseball's greatest and most beloved players too and that goes even for here in Chattanooga well as local three Xavier Harris reports the Tennessee Valley is just one of the stops he made in his professional career it was on this field in Engle Stadium here in Chattanooga where Willie Mays got his professional start he played for the Chattanooga Choo in 1948 and went on to make history and it's a history that many folks say will never be forgotten of course Willie ma was the first to reach 600 home runs in the major leagues and that's just one of his many accomplishments Mays played in 23 Major League Seasons spending most of that time with the New York Giants and the San Francisco Giants but not before spending some time right here in the scenic city in the late 1940s at Engle Stadium he also played uh out at Lincoln Park uh for a minute at one time Lincoln Park was the uh the only Park that African-Americans could attend after spending two summers with the Chattanooga chuchu's negro minor league team Maz went on to join the Negro American League for the Birmingham black baring which is where many fans receive the news of his death Willie ma one of the greatest players in the history of our game has passed away at the age of 93 since then several city leaders athletes and fans like John mcon began to show their respect honor and share memories with one of baseball's greatest players my mom took me I was about 10 years old and um we sat on top of the first base Dugout and I had Willie May's card and a baseball with me and he signed his card for me and we had one of these mccon says growing up he played Centerfield to be like Maize he says he still remembers game one of the 1954 World Series his overthe shoulder catch it was incredible you know I um being a center fielder myself thought hey this is never seen anything like it that one catch went down in history as one of the game's most memorable catches in the World Series people talk about uh the catch and I don't understand why because I did many things other than just you know catch a ball but when you find something like that in the World Series they had to pick a highlight and they picked I guess that one for the Highlight another highlight was playing his first major league game just four years after Jackie Robinson broke baseball color barrier which is something Elijah Cameron director of community relations for the Bessie Smith culture center says helped carry the torch for future black baseball players and athletes the kids coming up today can look back and see what happened with him and be able to say hey if he could do it in those days I can do it in today's time for his accomplishments in 2015 former president Barack Obama awarded maze with the nation's highest civilian honor the presidential medal of freedom I told him then what I'll tell all of you now it's because of giants like Willie that someone like me could even think about running for president reporting in Chattanooga I'm Xavier Harris Local 3 news thank you Xavier for that report there

Channel: Local 3 News

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Id: kspwJ02rnNw

Length: 3min 51sec (231 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 19 2024